Day 29

Our day has been fairly uneventful, for the most part anyways. We’ve just been moving steady towards our goal: the cruise ship in Hudson Bay. I’ve sent an email Sven Kanelstrand but so far I have received no response. I feel like we are in a race against time. While I know the letter said that they would be waiting in Waskaganish, I’m afraid that once we get there, they will have left. I’m sure that they have contacted others. Perhaps some of you that are still reading this. I know you have mentioned trying to head north but since leaving the safety of your homes, I have not heard from you. I guess I am lucky in a way to have the outlet, the contact with the rest of the living world as limited as that is. I know that if I were to lose you all, I would find it hard to stop writing… I think someone needs to know what happened to us.

How silly that sounds. If the end of the living world is about to draw its final breath, there will be no one left to read this. No one left to transcribe our struggles into the history books. Every freedom that we have ever fought for forgotten. All of our wars now seem pointless. There was only one war that we should have been preparing for; the one against the foe we assumed would never arise. We were stupid but one can only see that in hindsight…

Everything that has happened over the past few days shouldn’t put us to far off our estimated arrival time, but we’ll likely arrive sometime in the middle of the night. Not optimal but at least we’ll be there. I just wish that I could get a hold of the captain, just to be able to have a better grasp at what to expect once we get there. In situations where the Undead can make unexpected appearances it’s always best to have a plan.

Of course there is always the unexpected that you can never plan for and that is exactly what happened to us early today…

As we were driving through Blind River in Northern Ontario, Ben pulled the SUV to a complete and sudden stop. Ahead of us, hundreds of deer and moose were running down the roadway towards us. It was terrifying. For those of you not from a place where deer and moose are plentiful, they are absolutely gorgeous in the wild. A beautiful sight to behold as they graze in a field on a misty morning. They however do not look gorgeous or beautiful, melded together with your car. I have seen many individuals pass over my table at work as a result of accidents with these guys. Not a pretty sight at all. I prayed that none of them would smash into us, prayed that none of them would try to go over us. I prayed that they weren’t running from something terrible…

Two of my prayers were answered. All of the large animals missed us, but what was behind them was even worse. A seething mass of fast moving bloody gore was headed our way. I got out my binoculars and tried to focus on the moving carpet but it was difficult; they were just going too fast. Without the time to think, I started to close all of the vents in the car and ordered Ben to turn the engine off. Ben and I braced the soles of our feet against the vents just in case. I told everyone that when the swarm covered the car we would have to be completely still or else. I didn’t know at the time if they could get in. I didn’t want think that far ahead. I just knew that there was no way that we would be able to drive through them and survive. Once we got into them, they could have gotten up into the engine and caused the belts to seize, stranding us there with them. This was the only way that I could think to save us.

Within seconds, they had reached us. It was like someone turned off the lights as they covered the car, sensing the warmth and perhaps initially confusing it with the warmth of a living body. Ben and I were like stone in the front seats but I could not tell what was going in the back with Max and the twins. I felt Lily move as I heard her cry out in fear, knowing that she had peeked through her hands. The sound and subtle movement was like a beacon to the Undead rodents covering us. I don’t think a metronome could have kept better time, as the different species began to bang their little undead skulls on the surfaces of the Escalade. Within minutes I could hear the tiny fractures, see the faint webbing of cracks in the glass. Crack, crack, crack… I started to cry. I didn’t want to die like this. Heck, I didn’t want to die at all… Ben grabbed my hand, needing some comfort of his own, knowing that this might very well be the end for us.

Crack, crack, crack…

Liam and Lily were openly sobbing, the stress of the situation too much for them. Max seemed oblivious to it all. He just sat back there and held the twins and tried to comfort them as best as he could. With a tiny ping, the first piece if the windshield popped inward. I was stunned, to say the least. I had always thought that windshields were treated with a layer of plastic to prevent them from shattering. I guess no one had ever tested them against an army of Undead rodents.

A tiny Undead paw snaked through the hole, trying with all its undead might to grab us. It might have been comical had it not been terrifying. I remember praying at that point and asking for a way out. I was amazed at how quickly I was answered.

For some reason, as quickly as the swarm had come, it was gone. Looking in relief behind us, we saw the reason for their quick departure. A small group of cows, unaware of the danger had meandered into one of the neighbouring fields and had stopped for something to eat. We didn’t wait around long enough to find out how they got on. Once the swarm was far enough away and their attention focused on the doomed bovids, we turned on the car and high-tailed it out of there. There have been times when I thought I was going to die. Never have I actually come that close.